THE CIDER AND PERRY INDUSTRY. 



195 



lias already, I am told, worked wonders, and, much as our people 

 dislike State interference in their concerns, I think it would be 

 advisable in the interest of a great and growing industry to ask 

 Parliament to confer on local authorities powers to deal with 

 the subject something on the lines of the colonial measure. 



Next to the renovation, restoration, improvement, replanting, 

 and preservation of our orchards of vintage fruit will come 

 instruction in the science of cider-making, in the scientific 

 principles underlying the practice, and the reasons why attention, 

 care, and cleanliness are so essential to the success of the 

 process. Here, I think, we ought not to depend on the enter- 

 prise and public spirit of private individuals. Not only are such 

 persons not numerous enough — you may find one in a century or 

 so— but the matter is of sufficient importance to be dealt with by 

 the State. In giving my evidence before the Royal Commission 

 on Agriculture I suggested the establishment at the cost of the 

 State of at least two experimental fruit farms, with appropriate 

 buildings, plant, and staff, for the carrying on in them also such 

 research into the science of cider-making as has been conducted 

 for some time past on the estate of Mr. Neville Grenville. I 

 would have one such experimental farm in Herefordshire, from 

 which the adjoining counties of Gloucester and Worcester would 

 benefit, and another on the borders of Devon and Somerset for 

 the cider-making district dominated by those two counties. 



When, however, we have done what lies in our power or 

 in the power of the State to secure a supply of good cider 

 and perry, there will yet remain obstacles in the way of the 

 distribution thereof to the consumer. Foremost among these is 

 the cost of carriage. I have been furnished with an exhaustive 

 table of the rates charged by certain railway companies for the 

 conveyance of cider in cask. Without troubling you with these 

 in detail, I may say that, broadly speaking, these rates increase 

 the cost to the consumer by from 4cZ. to 5d. a gallon ; an enormous 

 percentage when we remember that few care to pay for the best 

 draught cider more than Is. or Is. 2d. a gallon. In the recent 

 revision and lowering of rates made by some of the railway 

 companies, ostensibly for the advantage of agriculturists, no 

 alteration has, I am told, been made in the rates for the con- 

 veyance of cider and perry. The matter is, however, under 

 consideration by the railway companies, who will I hope see 



